Lack of water a danger for villagers

For about 23 years now, distress calls from villagers to ward councillors pleading for water trucks to deliver water have largely failed. The pattern changed for several months last year when water trucks did pitch up but villagers say that for no known reason, the water delivery ceased.

Mountain View village, outside Tzaneen, has no reliable water supply and villagers say they must survive by fetching water in 25-litre containers from a broken pipe hidden in the bushes.

The residents say they have no option.

"Some of us wake up at 3.30am everyday to be the first to get water, but it takes almost 30 minutes or more to fill up a 25-litre container because the water runs so slowly," said Joyce Matita.

Pensioners are sometimes forced to pay young people to fetch water on their behalf because they are not able to get to pipe in the bushes.

"Scared of the bushes"

"I'm very scared of those bushes because women are being raped there. Some people are being found dead in the bushes and we suspect they are attacked even killed while trying to fetch water," Matita said.

Residents are also forced to take their lunch boxes with them because they can end up spending the entire day there waiting for water. They claim it takes two to three days to fill about 30 containers.

A group of women gathered at the pipe said water was not their only problem. They have no electricity and roads in their village are in such a bad condition that when it rains the streets are hazardous.

Greater Tzaneen municipality's spokesman Neville Ndlala said he was aware of the water crisis in the village.

"It's not our duty to supply them with water. We did try to help them with water trucks last year," he said.

Ndlala referred the matter to Mopani District Municipality's spokesman Neil Shikwambane, but he could not be reached for comment.

Source: Sowetan via I-Net Bridge